I bought a new car last summer. A 1997 Oldsmobile with 103,000 miles on it. I was getting tired of putting $4.50 worth of premium in my 1986 Mercedes every 26 miles (215,000 miles on this car).
As for oil, this looks like the third time in a row that the front month contract takes a dump below $40 in the last two weeks of trading. I think speculators are holding the front month and have to get out of it at any price because they don't have 1/2 dozen tanker trucks waiting to pick up a contract's worth of oil at the terminal.